Independent - centrist
Daily Mail - extreme right
Mirror - left
Financial Times - right (fiscal)
Sunday Telegraph - right (social + fiscal)
Daily Telegraph - right (social + fiscal)
The ideological idea of the "Independent" was that is was just that; independent of any political stance. However, it tends to adopt a centrist slant, as The West Wing points out.
"The Times is read by the people who run the country. The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country. The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country. The Morning Star is read by the people who think the country ought to be run by another country. The Independent is read by people who don't know who runs the country but are sure they're doing it wrong. The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country. The Financial Times is read by the people who own the country. The Daily Express is read by the people who think the country ought to be run as it used to be run. The Daily Telegraph is read by the people who still think it is their country. And the Sun's readers don't care who runs the country providing she has big tits." -- from Yes Prime Minister (from the 1980s, it doesn't have quite the same resonance today)
"The Star is read by the people who think the Sun is a bit too upmarket." -- anon
"The Sport is read by the people who think that Elvis is running the country from his secret lunar bunker assisted by a team of topless aliens." -- anon
Independent- independent but sometimes swings to either side depending on editor
Daily Mail - quite right wing
Mirror - left
Financial Times- moderately right
Sunday Telegraph - moderately left
Daily Telegraph - right
there have always been problems between the editorial teams of the telegraph and the sunday telegraph because the sunday version is left-leaning and the weekday version is slightly to the right.
The Times drifts- about 5 years ago it was said to be left, but now is considered right.
I think the independent is pretty central on the political spectrum. I tend to read The Guardian and The Independent as my main newspapers. They're not as sensationalist as the Daily Express or Daily Mail which are right-wing tabloids in my view.
The Times is slightly right wing, although I don't really notice any inherent political bias from what I've read.
Read wide. The difference between The Guardian and the Daily Express & Daily Mail is staggeringly obvious. Read the headlines, look at the quotations they use.